EU leaders investigate closure of Belarusian airspace after commercial plane hijacked to arrest opponent

European Union (EU) leaders will debate this Monday, the first day of a two-day extraordinary summit, the measures to be taken against those responsible for the hijacking by Belarus of a civilian plane to Minsk to arrest an opponent of the regime of Alexandr Lukashenko, including possible sanctions. Among them, the possibility of closing its airspace after the act that many have qualified as “state piracy”.

This incident was added to the agenda of the extraordinary face-to-face meeting previously convened by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who He only set it in principle for May 25 to discuss COVID-19, Russia and climate change, then extended it until May 24 to add at the top the implementation of the agreements with the UK.

A colorful agenda to which the conflict in the Middle East and the issue of migration were added last week, which will be proposed by the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, after the crisis experienced in Ceuta when Morocco allowed the entry of more than 8,000 immigrants on Spanish territory and in a context of increasing arrivals on the Italian coasts.

The face-to-face summit begins this Monday with a dinner starting at 7:00 p.m. focusing on foreign policy issues, among which Michel included last night “the unprecedented incident” of the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in the capital of Belarus, after having diverted it from the road which covered Athens towards Vilnius to arrest the journalist and dissident Roman Protasevich.

The incident “will not be without consequences”Michel said in a statement in which he expressed his condemnation “in the strongest possible terms”.

His spokesperson, Barend Leyts, later noted in a tweet that European leaders “will discuss the consequences and possible sanctions”.

“Those responsible for the #Ryanair kidnapping must be punished,” European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said more directly., in another tweet published on the eve of last midnight.

In the same message, Von der Leyen stressed that “the scandalous and illegal behavior of the Belarusian regime will have consequences” and argued that “Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately”.

What is certain is that The EU was already “preparing a third package of sanctions against the Alexandr Lukashenko regime in Belarus” before this incident.EU Foreign Policy High Representative Josep Borrell said last Friday.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Twitter expressed its “deep concern over the apparently forced landing” of the flight, something that could violate the rules of the Chicago Convention, and the Secretary General of the NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg said it was a “serious and dangerous incident which requires international investigation.”

The journalist, who was traveling with his girlfriend, who was also arrested, according to human rights NGO Vesná, was a director and one of the founders of Poland-based Telegram Nexta and Nexta Live channels with more than 1.2 million subscribers.

In addition to this incident, which scandalized the international community, EU leaders to address situation in Middle East at dinner tonight, following recent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militias, as confirmed by Michel in his invitation letter to the summit.

Also on the first day of the summit, European leaders They will talk about relations with Moscow, after the sanctions the EU has imposed on four Russian officials for the condemnation of the opposition Alexey Navalni and for Russia’s decision to expel several European diplomats..

The leaders will also hold the first discussion on their relations with the UK since the country completely disassociated itself from the EU on January 1 and the trade and association agreement between the two entered into force on January 1. may.

The relationship in recent months has been marked by tensions, including the UK’s lack of engagement with the implementation of the Irish Protocol, which avoids a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland .

On Tuesday, they will address climate efforts in different areas to achieve the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and will also address Covid-19, a topic that has been present at all summits since Sars-CoV-2 has reached. Europe.

(with EFE information)

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